http://www.abdpbt.com/personalfinance/2008/12/16/financial-sanity-101-stupid-tax/ live. love. snark. save. Sat, 13 Mar 2010 23:10:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 http://www.abdpbt.com/personalfinance/2008/12/16/financial-sanity-101-stupid-tax/comment-page-1/#comment-73 AKD Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:07:53 +0000 http://www.abdpbt.com/personalfinance/?p=241#comment-73 I financed a used car (Subaru station wagon) for a 5-year term when I made no money. The head gasket blew on the way back from Tahoe (which is a whole other "this week in stupid" entry about not paying attention to the temperature gauge). We were stranded by the freeway in Davis with a car that should have gone straight to the junkyard. But I still had to pay off the loan, and until I paid it off I couldn't get the clean title to be able to junk it. So I had to pay to get the stupid car towed from Davis back to Oakland, and then it sat in front of my house for months while I finished paying off the loan. I can't even remember how much the towing was, but it's probably still there as part of my credit card balance. I financed a used car (Subaru station wagon) for a 5-year term when I made no money. The head gasket blew on the way back from Tahoe (which is a whole other “this week in stupid” entry about not paying attention to the temperature gauge). We were stranded by the freeway in Davis with a car that should have gone straight to the junkyard. But I still had to pay off the loan, and until I paid it off I couldn’t get the clean title to be able to junk it. So I had to pay to get the stupid car towed from Davis back to Oakland, and then it sat in front of my house for months while I finished paying off the loan. I can’t even remember how much the towing was, but it’s probably still there as part of my credit card balance.

]]> http://www.abdpbt.com/personalfinance/2008/12/16/financial-sanity-101-stupid-tax/comment-page-1/#comment-71 foradifferentkindofgirl (fadkog) Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:06:08 +0000 http://www.abdpbt.com/personalfinance/?p=241#comment-71 When I was in Toys R Us shopping for the boys, I found a Fisher Price Imaginext playset I wanted, and proceeded to the checkout. Upon giving me my total, the cashier asked if I wanted to buy a protection plan for the item at a one-time cost of $10. I realize that's not much, but I just looked at him like he was crazy. I may have asked if he was kidding. A protection plan on such an item? Then I realized they were asking this question of every customer, regardless of what they were buying, and some were going for it. Nice way to add a bit to the bottom line. When I was in Toys R Us shopping for the boys, I found a Fisher Price Imaginext playset I wanted, and proceeded to the checkout. Upon giving me my total, the cashier asked if I wanted to buy a protection plan for the item at a one-time cost of $10. I realize that’s not much, but I just looked at him like he was crazy. I may have asked if he was kidding. A protection plan on such an item? Then I realized they were asking this question of every customer, regardless of what they were buying, and some were going for it. Nice way to add a bit to the bottom line.

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